Brain Facts
Brain Facts 2
Brain True or False
Brain Diseases
Famous Brain Injuries
100
What is the function of the cerebral aqueduct?
A. to provide a pathway for cerebrospinal fluid inside the brain
B. to connect the cerebellum to the spinal cord
A. to provide a pathway for cerebrospinal fluid inside the brain
100
Sixty percent of the human brain is made of fat, making it the fattiest organ in the human body.
A. Sixty percent
B. Fifty percent
A. Sixty percent
100
The brain can store an estimated 1,500,000 gigabytes.
True or False
B. False!
2,500,000 gigabytes
According to Paul Reber, Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, the human brain can store an estimated 2,500,000 gigabytes. That’s equivalent to 300 years worth of TV shows
100
Which is not an example of an autoimmune brain disease.
A. Multiple Sclerosis
B. Encephalitis
C. Lupus
C. Lupus
100
A railroad worker whose frontal lobe was destroyed by a tamping iron, causing his personality to shift from responsible to impulsive and irreverent, becoming a landmark case in neuroscience.
A. Phineas Gage (1848)
B. Heather Howland
A. Phineas Gage (1848)
200
A corpus callosotomy involves ____. You wear shoes on these.
A. reattaching the spinal cord after it has been severed
B. separating the two hemispheres of the brain
B. separating the two hemispheres of the brain
200
A brain freeze, medically known as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, occurs when cold hits the receptors in the meninges, the outer covering of the brain.
TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE!
The cold causes a contraction and then a dilation of arteries, triggering a rapid-onset headache.
200
The human attention span is shorter than a goldfish.
True or False
True!
Research shows that the average attention span has decreased by an average 12 minutes over the last 10 years. Today, the human attention span is shorter than a goldfish.
200
______ disorders are often due to the accumulation of abnormal proteins in your brain.
A. Neurodegenerative
B. Neurodevelopmental
A. Neurodegenerative
200
A concussion turned him into a musical savant, able to improvise beautiful piano music without prior training, even though he couldn't read music.
A. George Clooney
B. Derek Amato
B. Derek Amato
Derek Amato (born November 19, 1966) is an American composer and pianist who sustained a head injury on October 27, 2006, and subsequently became a musical savant. At the age of 39, Amato dove into a shallow swimming pool and hit his head, resulting in a major concussion and 35% hearing loss.
300
Which part of the brain controls the pituitary gland?
A. hypothalamus
B. hippocampus
A. hypothalamus
The hypothalamus communicates with the pituitary gland to regulate the gland’s production and secretion of hormones.
300
A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains 100,000 neurons and ______ synapses.
A. 1 billion
B. 1 million
A. 1 billion
300
Memories start forming in the womb.
True or False
True!
Memories start forming in the womb, as this is a critical time for brain development. Memory recall can occur as early as four months into pregnancy
300
Major types of medical illness includes anxiety, Schizophrenia and _____.
A. Diabetes
B. Kawasaki Disease
C. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
C. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
300
A skull hemorrhage triggered sudden artistic talent, making him a painter and sculptor, despite having no interest in art before.
A. Jovan Belcher
B. Tommy McHugh
B. Tommy McHugh
400
Which of these is NOT a part of the brainstem?
A. cerebellum
B. medulla oblongata
A. cerebellum
400
The human brain runs on about ___ watts of power (enough to power a lightbulb).
A. 30
B. 20
B. 20
All that power calls for some much-needed rest. Adequate sleep helps maintain the pathways in your brain. Additionally, research shows that sleep deprivation is linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
400
Sweating can temporarily shrink the brain.
True or False
True!
An hour and a half of sweating can temporarily shrink brain size as much as one year of aging does.
400
______ makes the protective layers surrounding your brain and spinal cord swell.
A. Meningitis
B. Guillain-Barré Syndrome
A. Meningitis
Bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and noninfectious conditions can cause meningitis.
400
Psychiatrist and neuropathologist Aloysius Alzheimer described the case of _______, a 56-year-old woman who passed away in 1906 after she developed strange behaviors, hallucinations, and memory loss.
A. Auguste Deter
B. Louis Victor Leborgne
A. Auguste Deter
When Alzheimer looked at her brain under the microscope, he described amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that we now know are a hallmark of the disease that bears his name. This significant discovery was the first time that a biological molecule such as a protein was linked to a psychiatric illness
500
Prosopagnosia is also known as ____.
A. touch sensitivity
B. face blindness
B. face blindness
500
It’s a myth that you only use ___ of your brain. You actually use all of it, even when you are sleeping. Neurologists confirm that your brain is always active.
A. 20%
B. 10%
B. 10%
500
It starts slowing at around ______.
A. 35 years old
B. 24 years old
B. 24 years old
500
Strokes occur in nearly _______ each year.
A. 800,000 people
B. 900,000 people
A. 800,000 people
500
A 10-year-old boy, ______, knocked unconscious one day by a baseball, discovered afterward that he could bring to mind the exact day of the week for any date after the accident and could remember the weather for each day since the trauma as well.
A. Orlando Serrell
B. Steve Wozniak
B. Orlando Serrell